[326] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: mechanical workings of Enigma
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Young)
Mon Mar 3 13:22:27 1997
Date: Sun, 02 Mar 1997 21:43:26 -0500
To: Steven Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
Three books I've got describe the innards of Enigma(s):
Kahn's "The Codebreakers," page 423, has a line drawing of
Arthur Schierbius's US Patent 1,657,411 which diagrams the
working of this early version of "Enigma." (This patent might be
in IBM's massive archive now accessible on the Web, and
may show more graphics.)
Then, there're 9 photos of an Enigma machine in the recent,
hold your hat, "The Ultimate Spy Book," by H. Keith Melton,
1996. These show in crisp color the machine's rotors being set,
and close-up details of the rotor board, the lightboard, the
keyboard and the plugboard.
To be sure, there were a range of Enigma machines, each
permutation using a different keying system. A softcover
volume, "Codes and Ciphers," by Fred B. Wrixon, 1992, has
brief textual descriptions of Types A to D and the British Typex
adaptation, but only a not-too-good B/W photo.
If these interest you and you don't have easy access to the
volumes, I'll scan them and put them on my Web site for
your download.
Was there not a rumor that Ross Anderson had an Enigma?
